Tuesday, October 31, 2006

November 5th is Race #4 and it will be the NorCal Super-D Championship. This will be a[n] incredible 4 mile run with 1700 feet descended. This 4 mile course will have literally no uphill sections and is a special treat for NorCal DH racers. More info on this race track coming ... Race #4 also holds the distinction as the Northern California Super D Championships. With category winners receiving an additional prize as well as CCCX series medals.

Monday, October 30, 2006

The results from the second Central California Off-Road Cyclists Time Trial race has been posted. Congratulations to Steven Ray (Steven's Bicycles), who posted the overall best time of 09:38, and to CCCX DH promoter Keith DeFiebre (Ritchey/Calabasas Bikes), who won the Open Wheel category.

Here is the full (but probably still tentative) UCI MTB race schedule for 2007:

UCI World Cup MA #1

March 17-18

Gran Canaria (Spain)

UCI World Cup XC #1

April 21-22

Houffalize (Belguim) or Madrid (Spain)*

UCI World Cup DH/4X #1

May 12-13

Vigo (Spain)

UCI World Cup XC #2

May 26-27

Offenburg (Germany)

UCI World Cup XC #3/DH/4X #2

June 9-10

Champéry (Switzerland)

UCI World Cup XC #4/DH/4X #3

June 23-24

Mont-Sainte-Anne (Canda)

UCI World Cup XC #5/DH/4X #4

June 30-July 1

Angel Fire Resort (USA)

UCI World Cup MA #2

July 7-8

Dolomiti Superbike (Italy)

UCI World Cup DH/4X #5

July 7-8

Schladming (Austria)

UCI World Cup MA #3

August 25

Lillehammer (Norway)

UCI World Cup XC/DH/4X #6

September 15-16

Maribor (SI)

UCI World Cup MA #4

October 12

Fréjus (France)

In the table, XCO or XC stands for cross country, MA stands for Marathon, 4X is the UCI term for mountain cross (MTX) and DHI is downhill. It appears that there are only two North America events planned this year.

Monday, October 23, 2006

This weekend marks the final 24 hour race of the season in California. But there's a bit of a drive involved . . . RideSB will be running the 24 Hours of Chamerlin Ranch II on October 28-29, 2006 near Santa Barabara, CA. Laps are approximately 15 miles over a course described as "[it] consists of double track farming roads, single track, short descents, some steep descents, ONE REALLY STEEP DESCENT THAT REQUIRES CAUTION, no climbs longer than a few minutes, & a few dry creek crossings." The race is relay format for teams of 2 – 10, and a straight-through, round the clock race for solo racers.

Cost is $5 presale, $8 at the door. Doors open at 7 PM. Admission will include a raffle ticket for free swag. This is a 21 & over event. For those under 21, an all ages encore showing will be held Monday Oct 23 at 7 PM at Blake's in Berkeley, more details to come

Monday, October 16, 2006

Team Bigfoot presents their last MTB race festival of the season, The Lagrange Fall Clasic, on October 20 - 22, 2006 in Weaverville, CA [ MAP ]. The race is billed as "Come join us for a full weekend of racing, including a Super-D, Cross-country and Downhill on the awesome trails of the Weaver Basin Trail System, some of the bestest singletrack ever! Part of the proceeds will be donated to the WBTS to be used for maintaining and building even more trails. Our venue is the local high school, with paved parking, real bathrooms AND they open up the shower rooms so racers can get hot showers and not have to drive home stinky and grimey….unless they want to."

The events are:

Super D (Friday): The course uses some of the upper 2/3 of the Downhill course, then veers onto a 3-mile section of the famed flume trails of our cross-country course for a total of 6+ miles.

XC (Saturday): The Beginner cross-county course is 16 miles of singletrack and fireroad with about 2000' of climbing. The Sport/Expert/Pro Course is about 21 miles and includes the famous LaGrange Ditch singletrack.

DH (Sunday): The Downhill course is about 4 miles and has over 2400'' of altitude drop. We run shuttles from the High School. Course will be open for practice on Saturday after the XC. On Sunday, practice shuttles begin at 9am.

The 4th Annual San Francisco VeloSwap will be held on Saturday, November 18th, 2006 in San Francisco Concourse Exhibition Center at 7th & Brannan [ MAP ] from 9 am until 4 pm. VeloSwap claims to be the "world's largest consumer bicycle and sports expo." In addition to the sale-o-rama, there will also be some seminars on training and two showings of ROAM.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

As anyone who reads this blog regularly knows, I use a Garmin Edge 305HR GPS Monitor and Motionbased.com to record my training rides and races. In six short months, it has completely changed how I look at my riding. Being able to breakdown every ride by elevation, distance and heartrate has allowed me to identify my weakpoints and focus my training. And until now, I hadn't seen any competition to it on the market. However, there is a post today on SickLines.com about the MotionLingo ADEO GPS. Although it appears to lack a display and heartrate monitor, it does seem to do most of the other Edge functions. And it is only USD$149.

If someone has one, please forward a review. Otherwise, I will wait for the folks at SickLines.com to finish their testing.

Sunday, October 08, 2006

The Central California Off-Road Cyclists have announced two MTB racing series for the Fresno area. One series will be a short track XC and the other will be a time trial series. Both racing series will be held in Woodward Park [ MAP ] during the late Fall and Winter.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

The folks over at the CCCX DH have updated their site with some information about the course for CCCX DH #3 this weekend:

The course has been set for race #3 and it looks to be fast, furious and fun for all racers who attend. The DH route will use portions of the same trail used for race #1 but will have a more direct line to the finish and times will be faster. The speeds will also be much higher in some sections and the riser section toward the top of the course will be hit with a faster line for more speed into the rise. Near the end of the course will be some add on trails that will challenge suspension, breaking and turning ability ... Parking will be in the same area as the past two races, and the hike to the start will be the same steep trail used for race #1. Also for race #3 and future races, the starter will call out names and times of the starting order! So the start time you sign up for at registration will be used at the start, and your name and # will be called 5 minutes before your scheduled time to get racers in proper starting order.

XC (Saturday): The thirteen mile loop gains 2000 ft in elevation over multiple switchback climbs and descents, almost entirely composed of tight singletrack. Here's the XC course. The trail surface is pine needles over hard pack with some pretty rocky sections. Look forward to even more singletrack this year.

Super D (Sunday): This will be a mass start with a le mans style uphill climb on foot of about 100 meters. Here is the Super D course map. Downhill singletrack, doubletrack and fire road sections. Windy and rocky but not too technical. A course appropriate for short-travel suspension or hardtails. Point-to-point, the few mile group ride to the top of the course leaves shortly after registration closes. Shuttle not available.

STXC (Sunday): This half mile course laps around the campground foreasy spectating. A long fire road section for passing precedes a short technical climb followed by a loose descent. Single track completes the loop for a well-rounded course of varying terrain.

Sorry about the lack of posts over the last week. Since I migrated this blog over to Blogger Beta, I've been having a few technincal difficulties. I think they are resolved now, so expect a pile of posts over the next day or so.